Antarctic odyssey takes travellers where few have gone before

Dec. 4, 2007: I step out of the zodiac and walk toward the tiny white-fenced cemetery nestled on the hillside. A glacier fed stream tumbles down beside the rows of white markers. Snow capped mountains tower around the abandoned whaling station that lies at the end of the sheltered cove. I stand silently taking in the scene.

My reverie is soon replaced by heart-thumping fear as aggressive fur seals snort and charge toward me, ready to defend their territory along the beach.

I move quickly through the grassy tussocks and gratefully enter the sanctuary of the cemetery. I make my way to the largest monument and almost know the words engraved there before I read them:

It is fitting that Sir Ernest Shackleton's final resting place is here in the sub-antarctic island of South Georgia, since this is where he landed in 1916 after travelling 1,300 kms in a small vessel, the James Caird, to initiate the rescue of his men stranded on Elephant Island.

I notice that his grave is facing the south that he loved while all others are facing the more traditional east. Shackleton remains one of the greatest heroes in the age of polar exploration and I feel honoured to be standing at this site.

I am on the first leg of a five-week semi-circumnavigation of the Far Side of Antarctica: the side less travelled. I am aboard the same Russian icebreaker on which I had travelled along the other side of the continent three years ago. With this expedition I will complete my odyssey around the frozen world of Antarctica.

South Georgia is a mountainous, crescent-shaped island that is as stunningly beautiful as it is remote. It lies a distant 2,000 kms east of the southern tip of South America and is a mere 170 kms long.

Captain Cook was the first to set foot on South Georgia in 1775 and his reports of the abundant wildlife brought sealers here first, and then the whalers, each in turn decimating the animal population.

While South Georgia lies above 60 degrees south and is not technically a part of Antarctica, it is within the Southern Ocean and its climate is highly influenced by the nutrient-rich cold currents that sweep up from the frozen continent.

South Georgia's weather can be violently inhospitable, but we are fortunate that our time here is picture perfect.

Every day we are able to make several zodiac landings to meet the main feature of South Georgia: the brilliantly colourful king penguins.

As we reach the shore, penguins hop in and out of the water, oblivious to us: strange intruders in yellow jackets.

At times, as we wade through ankle deep mire and muck, it is a challenge to find a path that will stay clear of the territorial and aggressive fur seals that crowd the beaches and shores.

Other landings are not as perilous and we wander amidst the larger but calmer elephant seals and take endless photos of still more penguins, birds and even the odd herd of reindeer that has been introduced and now thrives here in the southern hemisphere.

While some expedition ships visit South Georgia, almost none ever reaches our next destination: the South Sandwich Islands. Here we are fortunate again with relatively navigable seas and blue skies. We are able to make several landings to mingle with the million or so smaller chinstrap penguins on Candlemas Island and later we make a quick and somewhat perilous landing on Zavadovski Island where fewer people have walked than have landed on the moon.

Antarctica is a land of superlatives. Here the sea is more intensely blue, and the meringue-like ice is a purer white than camera can capture. We travel in a place that is remote and isolated. We are alone in a majestic land.

In the austral summer we experience no darkness for weeks; the sunsets and sunrises blend together in a palette of soft colour that goes on for hours. Some nights I stand on the flying bridge, 11 storeys up, snapping far too many photos, trying vainly to capture of the changing colours of the sky reflected in the icy water. I go inside only to thaw my fingers. Sleep is not a priority.

Shore excursions now are only possible using the two helicopters that are on board the icebreaker. We soar over vast seas of fast ice to land at emperor penguin colonies and experience the solitude of walking in a world that is completely made of glistening white ice. We are welcomed heartily at two Australian research stations, Mawson and Davis. We are the first guests at Davis in 18 months.

On the long journey across the Indian Ocean to our final destination in Fremantle, Australia, I am filled with nostalgia as I realize that this odyssey that really began three years ago is coming to a close. It seems too soon.

After almost 40 days on the ship we have travelled 17,000 kms and through 10 time zones round the bottom of the globe in some of its most inhospitable regions.

I have seen and experienced both sides of Antarctica now.

As I sadly leave the ship, I recall the words that I read on the back of Shackleton's monument five weeks earlier and they seem to sum up my feelings:

"I hold... that a man should strive/ to the uttermost for his life's set prize." - Robert Browning

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